


Murals of the Unconquered Sun's Justice

by Tikor



Category: Exalted
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 08:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7677292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikor/pseuds/Tikor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sidereal reflections on justice in heaven and earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Murals of the Unconquered Sun's Justice

A Sidereal walks the halls of the Unconquered Sun's Manse in Yu-Shan, The Salient of The Unconquered Sun. The mighty Incarna has not been in residence for millennia.

A Demon of the second circle has been brought before the courts. He claims the Sidereal who summoned him wronged him by some law passed in both Heaven by the Incarna and in Creation by the Solar Deliberative. On the merits he is correct, for even though Demons are stripped of all rights at the start of both Celestial and Terrestrial law, this specific measure negates that negation, and there is strong precedent of the latest law prevailing over the earlier law. The Sidereal has recently accepted the job of minor judge in the Celestial censor's bureaucracy to fill a vacancy the judge's underling's promotion had caused. It is a position she thought would be easy and allow her time to pursue her other projects via citing it during rejections of assignments from her faction superiors. Instead she finds herself stuck between either betraying her fellow in the Five-Score and siding with a Demon or fragrantly defying the law. Either choice will earn her more enemies, and she already has enough of those to top off the Well of Souls. So she took a walk about the Heavenly City and now stands here observing this abandoned Manse of the Unconquered Sun.

As is fitting each of the Celestial Manses dedicated to the Incarna, it is a geomantic masterpiece filled with testaments to the high god's glory. The Unconquered Sun's Manse in particular features five massive murals in the foyer. The first mural shows the Unconquered Sun cleaving through horrors from beyond the world. In a work 100 yards tall the central figure is only the height of the Sidereal standing before the massive painting. His rays of light illuminate the dark and hideous creatures and corpses surrounding him. At the edges of the mural are beings partially depicted, implying that the foes aren't fully captured even by a work of this size and scale. The Unconquered Sun has one ally in this fight, a small circular light behind his shoulder. It is him and the Daystar together against the endless tide.

The Sidereal reflects that any courtroom is preferable to being so surrounded. But that the Five Score Fellowship may as well have drawn the same picture with themselves at the center for all the threats they fight in Creation's name. She walks on to the next mural of the Manse.

The second mural shows the Unconquered Sun back in Creation under the light of the Green Sun. He stands on the ground looking to the sky and rightward, surrounded by his yellow light. Outside of two small radii around the Sun and his constant companion everything else is bathed in green. Liger stares down from the firmament, and the shape of the tyrant Theion sits above his second fetich, commanding the Sun back out to battle the horrors who seep in at the lower left corner of the work.

The Sidereal's case slips from her mind as she examines the mural. What must the Sun have felt being that angel of death for uncounted eternity? How, in that existence, did he choose another battle, that with his very makers? Even in pursuit of peace. She marvels, not for the first time, at the audacity of the Sun.

The next mural, central of the five, shows the Sun and his children. They are the bridge between what came before and what allowed this Manse to stand as it is today. In a fanciful reinterpretation of what must have been a less visible and more spiritual process, the Sun in this picture is shining his rays upon a dozen eggs. He floats above them with all four arms upraised, pouring his light and love on them. One of the eggs has broken out and a Dawn Caste, Castemark alight on her forehead, determination written upon her face, pearly shell pieces on her shoulders, is stepping out of one. It is simultaneously reverent, important, resonant and ridiculous. She wondered what First Age jokester saw fit to use the Sun's Manse for this message of humility.

Of course the next mural depicts the fighting of the Primordial War. In a reflection of the first and second murals the Primordials and their souls look much like the horrors of the Wyld and the Unconquered Sun has the same posture as Theion to the Exalted. Hundreds of Exalted of every type fight on one side, mighty line clashing with the front row of demons. Some are hacking down the dark shapes, while others are taking fatal blows from the same.

The last mural depicts a great feast where the assembled Exalted toast to the Host's victory in the company of the Incarna and the gods. Ambrosia fills plates and Quintessence fine goblets. Such a scene challenges the Sidereal's very conception of the world. How many of those shining warriors had she hunted down like any other beast of the Wyld? How many of those noble shapeshifters and seconds? One Vizier is clearly in a clasp of camaraderie with a Solar of the Zenith Caste. Was that feeling genuine or had the Solars brought to bear their tyranny of magic over the minds of the Host even in that early day? She is sure it felt genuine to the Vizier in the picture, for that is the most devious part of resisting the Anathema. In the center of the mural stands the Unconquered Sun. Two of his hands are granting the Creation Ruling Mandate to the Exalted by placing the Crown of Thunders on Merela. The other two hold aloft a goblet overflowing with Quintessence and a plate of Ambrosia heaped so high it leans at the top.

And thus is audacity, solidarity, and hard work rewarded with victory, from a straight reading. However, there is no mention of playing the Games! The sidereal smirks to herself. We need another mural in here immediately! To show the millennia of ease the gods have indulged in. Then she forces the thought from her mind. There is no telling what power the Unconquered Sun has over those who walk this place. She hurries back to the courtroom. She will side with the fellowship, with her peer. It is worth the small risk that the Unconquered Sun might deign to leave the games and correct her 'interpretation' of Celestial law. Any other spirit her colleagues of the Bronze Faction can easily keep quiet. Accusations of infernalism are so easy to make and so hard to disprove.


End file.
